ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [Book 



For the other principal part of the custody of knowledge, which is 

 memory, I find that faculty in my judgment weakly inquired of. An 

 art there is extant of it ; but it sccmeth to me that there are better 

 precepts than that art, and better practices of that art, than those 

 received. It is certain the art, as it is, may be raised to points of 

 ostentation prodigious : but in use, as it is now managed, it is barren, 

 not burdensome, nor dangerous to natural memory, as is imagined, 

 but barren ; that is, not dexterous to be applied to the serious use of 

 business and occasions. And therefore I make no more estimation of 

 repeating a great number of names or words upon once hearing, or the 

 pouring forth of a number of verses or rhimes ex tempore, or the. 

 making of a satirical simile of every thing, or the turning of every thing 

 to a jest, or the falsifying or contradicting of every thing by cavil, or 

 the like, whereof in the faculties of the mind there is great copia, and 

 such as by device and practice may be exalted to an extreme degree of 

 wonder, than I do of the tricks of tumblers, funambuloes, baladines ; 

 the one being the same in the mind, that the other is in the body ; 

 matters of strangeness without worthiness. 



This art of memory is but built upon two intentions ; the one 

 prcnotion, the other emblem. Prenotion dischargeth the indefinite 

 seeking of that we would remember, and dirccteth us to seek in a narrow 

 compass ; that is, somewhat that hath congruity with our place of 

 memory. Emblem reduceth conceits intellectual to images sensible, 

 which strike the memory more ; out of which axioms may be drawn&quot; 

 much better practice than that in use : and besides which axioms, 

 there are divers more touching help of memory, not inferior to them. 

 But I did in the beginning distinguish, not to report those things 

 deficient, which are but only ill managed. 



There rcmaincth the fourth kind of rational knowledge, which is 

 transitive, concerning the expressing or transferring our knowledge to 

 others, which I will term by the general name of tradition or delivery. 

 Tradition hath three parts : the first concerning the organ of tradition ; 

 the second, concerning the method of tradition ; and the third, con 

 cerning the illustration of tradition. 



For the organ of tradition, it is either speech or writing : for 

 Aristotle saith well, &quot; Words are the images of cogitations, and letters 

 arc the images of words ;&quot; but yet it is not of necessity that cogitations 

 be expressed by the medium of words. For whatsoever is capable of 

 sufficient differences, and those perceptible by the sense, is in nature 

 competent to express cogitations. And therefore we see in the com 

 merce of barbarous people, that understand not one another s language, 

 and in the practice of divers that are dumb and deaf, that men s minds 

 are expressed in gestures, though not exactly, yet to serve the turn. 

 And we understand farther, that it is the use of China, and the king 

 doms of the high Levant, to write in characters real, which express 

 neither letters nor words in gross, but things or notions ; insomuch as 

 countries and provinces, which understand not one another s language, 

 can nevertheless read one another s writings, because the characters 

 arc accepted more generally than the languages do extend ; and there- 



